Last Season's Statewide Buck Kill Second Highest Ever Outdoors

March 14, 1985|by TOM FEGELY, The Morning Call

While some hunters continue to express the belief that Pennsylvania's whitetail numbers are dwindling to the point of peril, the state game commission has announced that last season buck hunters reported the second highest harvest on record.

Report cards mailed by successful buck hunters indicated that 76,500 antlered whitetails were taken while another 63,680 hunters reported the killing of antlerless deer during the rifle, archery and muzzleloader seasons.

One question that always provides considerable discussion is the actual number of deer killed - considering the commission's claim that in recent years just over one-half of all hunters who killed deer sent in their reports. Considering that, the 140,180 bucks and does culled last year would be doubled. In actuality, the harvest figure could be well over a quarter- million.

According to Ted Godshall of the commission's Information and Education Div. in Harrisburg, the 1984-85 buck kill is surpassed only by the all-time high of 78,268 in 1967. The antlerless deer kill this year was the 14th highest on record with the total figures making last season the seventh largest ever in that category.

As might be expected, most of the deer tagged were from "God's Country" - the name that Potter Countians give their homeland. Traditionally Potter is number one in all three categories and last year was no exception in that hunters took 2,992 antlered bucks and 3,162 antlerless deer for a total kill of 6,154, thanks to the thousands of "flatlanders" that visit there each deer season.

Second place in buck kills was Tioga with 2,364 followed by Bradford (2,276), McKean (2,220), and Clearfield (2,172).

In the antlerless category Tioga County hunters took 2,587 whitetails with Bradford (2,265), McKean (1,978) and Lycoming (1,902) following.

Included in those figures are the whitetails reported by flintlock and bow hunters. During the 4-day, post-Christmas muzzleloader hunt 220 bucks and 2,670 antlerless deer were shot with archers shooting straight on 3,507 bucks and 3,067 antlerless animals in their fall and winter seasons.

Locally, within The Morning Call coverage area, Schuylkill topped the list with 1,892 bucks and 1,349 antlerless deer being reported. Berks followed with figures of 1,519 and 1,474, respectively, with Pike County hunters taking the number three spot with kills of 1,015 antlered bucks and 569 doe or antlerless bucks.

Bowhunters even scored on four bucks and two does in Philadelphia County where gun-hunting is notpermitted. The total bear harvest, as announced last December following the 2-day season, was finalized at 1,547.

Of special note is the fact that annually the game commission is accused of padding the figures - especially by hunters who no longer find whitetail numbers in their areas as once were evident. Recently a petition to ban doe hunting for a year was signed by 15,000 people, presumably all deer hunters. The figures released by the commission on the 1984-85 kills and the knowledge that the state's hunters are notoriously uncooperative when it comes to sending in the report cards required of all successful deer hunters, points out that this state still has a healthy and large deer population.

In recent years the commission has given fines to hunters whose kills go unreported but the insurmountable task of finding all of them accounts for most non-reporters getting away with their irresponsibilities. Add to the number of unreported kills the whitetails taken by poachers, the hunters who get away with killing more than one deer a year, highway fatalities, deer killed by farmers, orchardists and foresters for crop damage, kills by dogs and starvation (not evident this winter) and other accidental deaths, and the actual number of deer alive in summer that don't make it to the following spring goes well over 300,000.

The commission is again processing data from the past season to find out whether or not the increase in this year's report cards is an indication of a greater harvest or if a greater percentage of hunters filed their cards this year. The 1984-85 season marks the fifth consecutive year in which the reported buck kill exceeded 70,000.

The Pennsylvania herd has been variously estimated at 700,000 to 800,000 animals with some biologists claiming that the state holds over amillion deer. With over a million hunters after them each fall and winter, it's obvious that not everyone will (or should) score.

While it's true that deer numbers have dwindled in some sectors of the state, in others the herd's been either holding its own or rising. Management that works in one region will not be applicable in another, yet many hunters who phone or write to this desk seem to think that their lack of sighting deer is prevalent everywhere in the state. Such is simply not the case.